BIRDS OF THE ISLE OF MAN. 95 



does not appear to have been previously reported in the Isle of 

 Man, except at one of the lighthouses in a ' Migration Beport.' 

 I have seen it, however, on several marshy river-sides in the 

 neighbourhood of Douglas. 



Long-tailed Titmouse, Acredula rosea. — A few only have been 

 obtained, and this species and the Great Titmouse are the only 

 representatives of the Paridce known to occur in the Isle of Man. 



Grey Wagtail, Motacilla melanope. — Pairs may be found 

 scattered along our stony streams in summer. 



Meadow Pipit, Anihus pratensis, and Kock Pipit, A. obscurus. 

 — These two birds are very characteristic of Manx bird-life. The 

 former breeds plentifully on our uplands, and is often the only 

 bird observed along miles of grassy moorland. On our pastures 

 and the grassy edges of the "curragh" or marsh-lands, it is 

 equally frequent. The latter flits through the wildest recesses 

 of the sea-coast, haunting cavernous solitudes, the vastness of 

 whose scenery dwarfs it to the size of an insect, or it feeds 

 among the cast-up wrack of the beaches, or upon the weedy 

 surface of the tidal reefs frequented by Gulls and Sandpipers. 

 Many a lovely sea-margin, sprinkled in early summer with the 

 lilac snows of the vernal squill, finds one of its appropriate 

 charms in the sportive flight and song of this little dun-coloured 

 bird. The Pipits are here called " Tweet." 



Martin, Chelidon urbica. — Usually selects sea-cliffs for nesting 

 here ; it is not a common species, but there are small colonies 

 on several localities on the coast. Its habit is not invariable 

 here, however, for I have seen the nest on houses at Douglas 

 and at St. John's. 



Sand Martin, Cotile riparia. — The sandy brows which for 

 many miles form the northern coast-line of the island are riddled 

 with the holes of Sand Martins. In the neighbourhood of Douglas 

 it is uncommon ; a small colony which inhabited a bank at the 

 top of a quarry above the Harbour, above the salt-waters of which 

 the birds were constantly hawking, seems to be extinct. 



Chough, Pyrrhocorax graculus (called "Caaig" on the west 

 coast. — Still lingers in some wild localities. The only nest I have 

 seen was built high up in a large sea-cave. In the particular 

 locality where this was situated the birds have almost or 

 altogether died out. Sir Wm. Jardine, in his ' British Birds,' 

 writing of the former abundance of this bird in Man, remarks, 



